White House Refuses To Take Collect Calls

So how goes it this morning in Kiev and elsewhere behind the Red Radiation Curtain?

It is obvious the Moscow red line for information about the recent nuclear power plant disaster is a nyet-nyet.

Instead, I called an information telephone line in President Reagan's office Thursday, which is manned by volunteer message-takers.

''You have reached the executive office of the president. All lines are busy. Please hold and your call will be answered in turn. Thank you,'' answered the recorded voice at 1600 Pennsyvania Ave.

In a few seconds, the pleasant-sounding voice of a woman came on the phone, ''This is the office of the president.''

''How are things in Kiev today?'' I asked.

''I don't know, I just came on today, and they don't brief us about the day before,'' she said.

So much for getting a scoop on what's happening in the Soviet Union.

I know Reagan is out of the office this week on a trip to the Far East to attend a world economic summit, but I asked for him anyway.

''I'm sorry, the president doesn't take any personal calls. If he answered every call he'd never have time to run the government,'' she said. ''He's much too busy handling the state of world affairs. He has no time for personal calls.''

The volunteers -- there's about 50 each weekday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. -- provide a valuable service to the chief executive: They take thousands of messages for the president every week.

The bank of telephones are set up to take comments about the president and issues from all over the country.

On a normal day, they'll handle about 500 calls.

''People call us about everything,'' said one volunteer who was sworn to anonymity when she accepted the job two years ago.

Such as?

''A gamut of things, depending on the crisis of the day -- worldwide terrorism, the Russians and now this nuclear disaster in Kiev,'' she said.

I asked if I could call collect next time the president is back in town?